SDCC 2015: Conan recap 7/11/2015

Conan final open

“The Final Conan Frontier: Davos’ Revenge”

 

It’s that time again folks, we’ve reached the end of our long week journey from the couch to Comic Con. Once again coming to us live from San Diego at the top of Geek Mountain, it’s Conan O’ Briennnnn!! Tonight we have a big show in store with the cast of the upcoming movie X-Men: Apocalypse (Hear that? It was the sound of the internet cracking.) He let’s us know that he is extremely sad that it’s his last night here at Comic Con, to which he says he want’s to go out “Jon Snow style” (Oh Conan just let the dead rest) He then goes on to tell us that his favorite superhero team of all time is “The Avengers”. He especially enjoys their iconic battle cry of “Avenger’s Assemble!” Conan then proposes what is sure to be the team’s ultimate challenge: Assembling some IKEA furniture.

avengers ikea avengers ikea 2

Here we have the super trio of Black Widow, Captain America, and the Mighty Thor (not really) attempting their collective best to put together some furniture to no avail. (Just goes to show folks, just about everyone has trouble assembling this stuff) Conan and Andy watch as our heroes falter and even comment on Thor’s dropping the open bag and losing the screws. Personally I just laughed when “Captain America” was punching the box to get it open. Way to go Cap! We will check in with these folks later. On with the show..

Conan now takes a moment to get serious about an important problem that has been plaguing comic books for decades now: the depiction of women heroes with overly large breasts. (it’s a double difficult problem for sure. Hopefully they all have great health insurance to go with it.)

super dd

Conan though being the upstanding gentleman of virtue that he is, decides to level the playing field. He introduces us to Ant-Man with gigantic testicles!

ant balls

(That’s right. Looks like our jaws, weren’t the only thing that decended. Look on the bright side Scott, at least they aren’t blue.) Red testicles aside, moving on..

davros Liam Conan

Next Conan brings up a great point, as on last nights show he had 9 cast members from Game of Thrones as the guest stars. He explains to us that due to rigid time constraint (yeah, I wonder why.) he was not able to speak with all the cast members. He then informs us that Liam Cunningham who plays Davros is here again tonight. (What a good sport) He introduces Liam, and thanks him for appearing again and after apologizing to him he says he has an important question. He asks “Now that Melissandre has arrived in Winterfell, will Davros seek to avenge Stanis?”

The actor the professionally replies “Go f&*^ yourself.” to a dumfounded Conan and exits stage left. Good for you Liam don’t take no sh&^ from anyone!

davros exit

(You’ve got to love that as he leaves he walks right by the giant Ant-Man balls almost adding an extra sense of “FU” to the moment. Kudos to the cameraman for capturing it.)

F4

Quick commercial break and we get a short teaser for the new Fantastic Four movie. (I must say as a huge fan after how bad Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer was, I am cautiously optimistic. As long as the studio gets Doom right this time, all will be fine with me.)

We’re back and Conan informs us that his week from Comic Con was such a success and the producers and cast have decided to return again next year! With that being said it’s time for the final PoP! Toys exclusive offer for the Conan’s Monster figurine. (I of course re entered for this and I’m hoping that fourth time’s the charm) These were too cool and I really hope PoP! does a different run of these for SDCC next year.

It’s no secret how Conan is a proud promoter of diversity and equal rights on the show as he tells us his latest new hire for the week: R5-D4 (Even Droids got to work y’know)

R5

Conan tells us R5’s duties for the week in some funny cut scenes. They show him scrubbing toilets, massaging Andy’s feet, writing most of the jokes for the monologues (as long as you aren’t responsible for those dreadful alien saxophone and Weather bits from last night we’re cool. I’ve no quarrel with you my shiny little friend.) Then just as the little guy shows some pride a selfish droid from the other side of the galaxy rears his chromed plated head: R2-D2. R2 is shown flanked with a pretty lady on each side. He heckles R5 as he is much a more successful character. (Hmmm didn’t know Droids heckled) This prompts R5 to say goodbye to it all as he races to the window to go to that big tool box in the sky.

R5 fall

(Okay now you can get endless mem’s out of that. “That’s gold Conan!…Gold!”)

Time to check back in with the “Avengers” and see how they are doing combatting the dreaded furniture. We check and they still aren’t finished. Just goes to show with out Iron Man they really aren’t much.

We then are joined by a very special visitor from outside time and space, as Dr. Who himself Peter Capaldi arrives on set via a TARDIS! (Yeah, a freaking TARDIS!)

dr who

We get a quick little interview with the good Doctor. Conan even apologizes for making an entrance through a very poor special effect. (Just a fog machine and some rope pulling) Capaldi replies “That’s ok I come from BBC.” (Ha, brilliant!) Capaldi tells us that this is indeed his very first time at Comic Con and he was nervous at first, but that all subsided when he walked down the street of his hotel and he saw all the fans. He tells us that he even grew up a big Dr. Who fan and used to write letters to the show and he is now humbled he gets to play and contribute to the legendary role. Conan tells us that all the actors tend to put their own spin on the Doctor and Capaldi is know as the “Grumpy Doctor.” Capaldi retorts “Well hey he’s over two thousand years old.” Conan thanks him for coming and taking the time out of his very busy schedule. (read it with a Brit accent though, it’s cooler) That was a cool little surprise. I must say they have absolutely redeemed themselves from the show last night. The jokes, the pacing, even the commercials have really flowed well. Fantastic stuff.

x-men

Finally now, the moment we have all waited for: the arrival of everyone’s favorite on again off again mutant bromance James McAvoy (Charles Xavier) and Michael Fassbender (Magneto) arrive. Conan starts off with welcoming them and that the movie is very much anticipated next summer. (Absolutely I’m X-static for it) He asks them if there was any pressure when they took on these roles due to having to live up to the iconic performances of Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan. Michael says there was at first but then he read what the directors had planned for his version of Magneto and he just went with it. James says likewise and interjects that the war between the two is really a love story between two best friends. He states their ideology is what separates them but they can’t bring themselves to let one another go. Very well put. The actors then state that through their roles they have grown to become such good friends. Conan then shows a fan spoof video with tears and all set to the music of Coldplay. That was pretty funny.

Back from the final commercial break, we are joined by the rest of the cast of X-Men: Apocalypse Olivia Munn (Betsy Braddock, Psylocke) Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy, Beast) Evan Peters (Quicksilver) and last Oscar Issac playing Apocalypse himself. Conan speaks to Olivia first and reveals that it has always been her dream to play a superhero (I used to watch Attack of the Show on G4 network, I can attest to it.) She tells us it’s amazing because Psylocke has always been a favorite character of hers and now she gets to act her out on screen. She goes over the fact that Psylocke is a telepath but also a fearless warrior who likes to get very physical with her enemies. Conan then shows us a classic image of the Psylocke character and asks if her costume will be close to that.

Olivia reassures us that the costume will be almost a literal interpretation which pleases the audience. James then jokes that there is a lot of lubrication involved in getting her into the costume. She says that’s right it takes two women to “lube” her up to get into the outfit which elicits a lot of laughter from the cast and the viewers. (Looking at the photo side by side there and knowing how dedicated a nerd that Ms. Munn is, I have no doubt she will do Betsy Braddock justice on the silver screen) Fun little fact, Olivia is actually the longtime girlfriend of Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers. Next we hear from Evan Peters who tells us how cool it was to film Quicksilvers big scene in X-Men: Days of Future Past. He jokes the crew and special effects people were great because he didn’t have to do any real work at all. Last we get a tidbit from Oscar Issac on what we can expect from the Apocalypse costume in the film. He says it’s massive and very noisy but true to the source material from the classic comics. (My inner fanboy just squealed hard) Conan tells us that we have run out of time and thanks them all for coming. That was just a great segment and made up for the Game of Thrones interview the night before. I doff my cap to you sir.

Overall: It’s been a week of ups and downs, thankfully many more ups. After the middle shows I was wondering how Conan would close it out. Watching this episode with Ms. B, she and I were definitely in agreement this one was great, had a good feel and pulled out all the stops. It’s bittersweet that we have to say goodbye but at least we know that Conan will return from Comic Con next year and I have a gut feeling it will only get bigger and better. Thank you good sir! Till next year!

Remember Conan like I and many others, The Watcher watches you…